istanbul sehir university

ISTANBUL SEHIR UNIVERSITY
SYLLABUS
PSY 100 Introduction to Psychology
2011 Fall
Course Code
PSY 101
Introduction to Psychology
Prerequisite
None
Lecturer(s)
Dr. William H. Knapp III
[email protected]
Ext. 9045
Berk Efe Altınal
[email protected]
TBA
E-mail
Phone
Assistant(s)
E-mail
Phone
Course
Description
Textbooks/
References
Learning
Outcomes
Hours
Credits
ECTS
T A L
Required
3 0 0
3
6
Prerequisite to PSY 212, 232, 262, 314, 322, 326,
331, 332, 341, 342, 351, 401, 413, 431, 461
Course
Type
Course Name
Monday – Friday 11:00-Noon
Location
415
Office Hours
TBA
Location
TBA
Broad survey of psychological science including sensation and perception, learning, memory, intelligence, language
and cognition, emotion and motivation. Discusses relations among brain, behavior and experience. Emphasizes science
as a process of discovery and the empirical results supporting those discoveries.
1.
2.
No textbook required.
Study guides uploaded the class before they're due.
1.
By the end of this course, successful students will have:
Identified the major theories, thinkers, issues, and techniques of psychology.
2.
3.
4.
Demonstrated what science is and how psychology is a science.
Compared, analyzed, and evaluated psychological theories.
Examined how psychological principles can be applied in their classes and lives.
5.
Understand the major questions and problems psychology explores.
6.
Critically assessed psychological claims presented in the media.
Lecture, discussions, in class activities, library research, multimedia presentations.
Schedule
See attachment
Quantity
Weight
Each(%)
Total Weight (%)
N
N/16.7
16.7
Exams
4
16.7
66.7
Research Participation
See Attachment
Psychology in the News
See Attachment
Final
1
Evaluation Tool
Assessment
Methods
and
Criteria
***
Class Hours
Study Guides
Psych News
Research
410 / MWF / 10-11
Office Hours
Teaching Methods
Activity
Location/ Days /
Times
Quizzes
ECTS Credit Calculation
Hours
Weeks
3
4
0.5
2.5
14
14
14
1
Student Workload
Hours
42.0
56.0
7.0
2.5
***
8.3
8.3
16.7
Language:
Up to 16.7
English
Activity
Hours
Weeks
Exams
Final
6
10
4
1
Total Workload Hours =
Recommended ECTS Credit (Total Workload Hours /25) =
Student Workload
Hours
24.0
10.0
0.0
0.0
141.5
6
Instructional Format:
This class will be a mix of lecture, group discussions, and demonstrations. For each class, except for exam days, you
will receive a study guide that corresponds to the readings for that day. You are expected to complete the readings and
study guides BEFORE class. In class, we will discuss the readings, study guides, and, possibly, some additional topics
not covered in the study guides.
Contacting Me:
You are encouraged to come see me during my office hours if you are having any trouble understanding your readings
or anything we discuss in class. You’re also free to set appointments with me if my office hours don’t work well with
your schedule. Other than the hour before class, during which I am often making finishing touches on presentations,
quizzes, etc., feel free to drop in at other times too. If I’m available, I’ll be happy to talk. If not, you can try later or
contact me some other way. The best way to reach me, if you can’t see me in person, is to shoot me an email. You can
email me at [email protected]. You can also send me messages on Facebook (my username is knappsych). If
you have a concern about the class that you don’t want to voice personally (e.g. you think I’m being unfair in some
way), you can use my anonymous emailer at http://wknapp.com/mailform.php.
Attendance:
To get the most out of this class, we need to have active discussions each day. To have active discussions, people need
to show up, prepare, and participate. I take attendance for record keeping, but I don’t grade you on your attendance.
Study Guides:
For each non-testing day, you will have a study guide to complete BEFORE class. The study guides will contain
approximately 10-20 questions about the day’s topics and, where appropriate, links to sources where you can find
answers to the questions. On average, the study guides should take a little more than an hour for the typical student to
complete.
Quizzes:
To make sure that you’re coming to class prepared and to help you learn the material better, 5-10 question multiplechoice quizzes based off that day’s study guide will regularly be given at the beginning of the class. Because these
quizzes are given before we discuss the topics on the quizzes, it is imperative that you complete the study guides
BEFORE class. If you complete the study guides before class, the quizzes should be simple. If you do not, the quizzes
will often be brutal.
Exams:
Four non-cumulative multiple-choice exams will be used to assess your understanding of the topics covered in class.
Although the vast majority of the questions will based off the study guides, there may be a few questions based on
class discussions that weren’t covered on the study guides. Although the exams should only take an hour to complete,
you can have as much time as you’d like to finish. If you would like to start an exam early (e.g. at 9 a.m. instead of 10
a.m.), please let me know 24 hours in advance so we can make appropriate arrangements. Upon completing an exam,
you are encouraged to examine the answer key to check your work and help crystallize your knowledge. Because
answer keys are provided at the end of each exam, no make-up tests will be given for students who miss class on a test
day. Any students missing an exam may take the test to assess their knowledge, but the test won’t count towards their
grade.
Optional Cumulative Final:
If for any reason you miss an exam, you will want to take the optional multiple-choice cumulative final. The optional
final WILL NOT hurt your grade, but it can help. The final can replace your worst exam, your total score for quizzes,
or your total score for the research and psychology in the news components, whichever is lowest, if your score on the
final is higher. I offer the optional final because I understand that things happen (e.g. people get sick, sleep in, have a
bad day, observe religious holidays, etc.). NOTE: the optional final will replace only one score, so please, do not miss
more than a single exam. Although, the vast majority of the questions on the final will come directly off the previous
exams, there may be a few questions that ask you to synthesize what you have learned throughout the course (e.g.
combining your knowledge from earlier and later study guides). If you want to maximize your grade on the final, you
should regularly come to office hours to review your previous exams and ask any lingering questions.
Psychology in the Media:
To help you understand the value and pervasiveness of psychology in society, I want you to keep an eye out for content
related to psychology when you’re reading the news, surfing the web, watching TV, checking Facebook, etc. You’ll
get points for identifying and/or discussing the content. The following provides some examples of what I’m looking
for. Of course, given your creativity, I’m sure you can identify other ways of getting credit too.
1. Identifying:
a. Provide a link
b. Take a screen shot
c. Take a video
d. Bring in a magazine clipping
e. Etc.
2. Discussing:
a. If possible, comment directly on the content (e.g. comment on someone’s Facebook post)
b. Correctly answer a question.
c. Identify how the content is relevant to psychology.
i. Applicable only for content in which psychology is not the topic or discussed.
d. Write a critique (e.g. how the content portrays psychological phenomena (in)accurately).
e. Identify a peer reviewed journal article related to the content (APA reference preferred).
To make this simpler for electronic content, I’ve designed a collabor8r.com to which you can submit content and
comments. Given my conflict of interest related to collabor8r.com, I cannot require you to submit or discuss content
on this site. Alternatively, you upload your work to the learning management system (LMS) at my.sehir.edu.tr. Nonelectronic content can be submitted after class or during office hours.
Restrictions: Content must be from 2010-2011. Content must come from popular media sources (e.g. news, Facebook,
blogs, magazines, television, movies, etc.). If you have questions about what is acceptable (e.g. Wikipedia is not),
please ask. Content must be unique (e.g. another student has not already submitted it and it’s not already on
collabor8r.com).
Identifying content is worth up to 5 points. Discussing content is worth up to 10 points. You can identify and discuss
as much as you’d like to receive up to 50 points. Although I will only credit one student for identifying a particular
piece of content, all students can receive credit for uniquely contributing to the discussion of that content. The number
of points depends on how related the content is to psychology. HINT: For content that isn’t obviously related to
psychology, a good discussion of how it’s related can increase the points received by the identifier.
Research Participation:
It is important for all students studying psychology to gain firsthand experience participating in psychological research.
This experience will help you understand how psychological research is conducted and the importance of participating
in research. Thus, for this class you are required to participate in 2.5 hours of psychological research or complete
appropriate alternative assignments. For studies lasting less than half an hour, you will receive half an hour credit.
Each half an hour of research is worth 10 points. If for any reason you do not wish to participate in research or cannot
participate in 2.5 hours of research, you are free to complete alternative assignments that closely match the demands of
and experience gained from participating in research. The alternative assignment consists of describing, in 1-2 pages,
what it would be like to participate in an experiment discussed in a peer-reviewed journal article from 2010-2011. For
each alternative assignment you can receive up to 25 points each. You can complete as many alternative assignments
as you need to reach 50 points.
Extra Credit:
By making an extra effort you can gain an additional 30 points. The extra credit assignment is to find something that
interests you about psychology, other than psychological disorders, make a video about it, and give me a copy. You
can gain up to 15 points with for each video up to 30 points maximum. Your score will be based on how educational
and entertaining it is. A video that is both educational and entertaining will get you maximum points. You are
welcome to collaborate on a video project with classmates or other friends. However, if more than 2 students
collaborate on a project and you make less than a 50% contribution, the points you receive will based on the overall
quality of the project and your relative contribution using the following formula: Video’s Worth * Contribution * 2.
So if the video is worth 10 points and your contribution is 30%, you’d receive 10*.3*2 = 6 points.
Schedule
Date
26/09/11
28/09/11
30/09/11
03/10/11
05/10/11
07/10/11
10/10/11
12/10/11
14/10/11
17/10/11
19/10/11
21/10/11
24/10/11
26/10/11
28/10/11
31/10/11
02/11/11
04/11/11
11/11/11
14/11/11
16/11/11
18/11/11
21/11/11
23/11/11
25/11/11
28/11/11
30/11/11
02/12/11
05/12/11
07/12/11
09/12/11
12/12/11
14/12/11
16/12/11
19/12/11
21/12/11
23/12/11
26/12/11
28/12/11
30/12/11
02/01/12
04/01/12
06/01/12
Topic
Intro
Memory
Study Skills
Philosophy and Truth
Chance and Prediction
Experiments
Statistics
Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Social Learning
1st Exam
Media Exposure
Vision
Hearing
Stress
Health
Sleep
Hypnosis
Drugs
Infants
Kids
2nd Exam
Human Uniqueness
Morality
Evil
Conformity
Heroes
Love
Sex
Faith
Happiness
3rd Exam
Positive Psychology
Intelligence
Racism
Aging
Freud's Unconscious
Psychological Disorders
Anxiety and Somatoform Disorder
Dissociative and Psychotic Disorders
Mood & Personality Disorders
Therapies
4th Exam
All assignments are due before the 4th exam.
Non Optional Component Worth
Component
Attendance
Study Guides
Quizzes
Research
Psych News
Exams
Total
Points Each
0
0
N/100
Up to 50
Up to 10
100
Number
39
39
N
At Least 1
At Least 5
4
Total
0
0
100
50
50
400
600
If the class average on any exam or the quizzes is less
than 73%, I will curve up. I will not curve down.
Letter
Grade
A
B+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
F
Minimum
Points
% Cutoff
537
519
495
477
459
435
417
399
357
0
90
87
83
80
77
73
70
67
60
0
I don’t normally give A+’s or A-‘s.
However, if you want the chance to get an A+,
send me an email this week. Be warned, with
the chance to get an A+ also comes the chance
to get an A-. I will not change the way your
grade is determined the last week of class, or
even next week, so let me know, in writing,
now.
Don’t cheat or plagiarize!
If I catch you cheating or plagiarizing
on a test, quiz, or assignment, you will
receive a 0 for that assignment.
Repeated violators will fail the course.
If you don’t know what cheating or
plagiarism is, please ask me!